Europeans warming up to mobile broadband services

Europeans look to be ramping up adoption of mobile broadband services based on HSPA and LTE technologies, according to a report from Berg Insight. The firm noted that HSPA/LTE connections totalled 25 million at the end of last year and accounted for 17.3% of total broadband connections in Europe. The firm noted that for the year HSPA/LTE connections surged 71% and are forecast to grow at a 21.6% compound annual rate reaching 81 million connections by 2015.
For comparison, Berg Insight said that in North America mobile broadband connections accounted for just 7.1% of total broadband connections at the end of 2009. However, the firm said it expects North American adoption to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 34.8%, reaching 42 million subscribers in 2015.
Among European nations Austria was the most aggressive in adopting mobile broadband services with a penetration rate of more than 15% and accounting for 40% of all broadband connections in the country. Other countries noted for strong growth include Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Ireland and Portugal, all with penetration rates of more than 10%. On the other end of the spectrum, Belgium, The Netherlands and Greece were noted as having mobile broadband penetration rates of less than 3%.
One factor contributing to expected strong growth of the mobile broadband market is the continued integration of wireless modems into consumer devices.
“The attach rate of embedded mobile broadband in notebooks was less than 5 percent in both Europe and North America last year,” said Marcus Persson, telecom analyst at Berg Insight. “This will change as prices for the embedded modules decrease and an attach rate of almost 45% is expected already in 5 years.”
Berg Insight also noted that Chinese equipment vendor Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. has established itself as the leader in mobile broadband terminal sales in Europe holding approximately 53% market share at the end of 2009. Fellow Chinese vendor ZTE Corp. held down the No. 2 position with 30% market share at the end of the year.
Worldwide, Berg Insight said 66 million mobile broadband terminals were sold in 2009, with European customers snatching up approximately 24.3 million and North American consumers purchasing approximately 5.6 million units.